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Shavua Tov Chevra,
The recitation of Hallel is a major thread in the concluding Mishnayot of chapter 3. In general, the instinct and the capacity to sing Hallel to God when the moment calls for it, are considered to be religiously fundamental. The Gemara ascribes the Mitzvah to recite Hallel "on every appropriate occasion" to be the initiative of no less than "the Prophets among us" (Pesachim 117a).
This helps to explain a variety of things that we encounter here in Perek 3, including:
- the not self-evident decision to integrate the Mitzvah of Lulav into Hallel (Mishna 9). This decision was animated by the assumptions that one of the ways that we fulfill "rejoicing before God" on Sukkot is through Lulav, and that Hallel is our fundamental all-purpose vehicle for rejoicing before God. (See also Mishna 12)
- the unusual social reprimand delivered to a man who cannot recite Hallel (Mishna 10) (I acknowledge the deeply gendered assumption characteristic of the general and Jewish worlds of the 2nd century). And,
- the unusual nonchalance around how precisely Hallel is to be recited (Mishna 11), which preserves at least some of the spontaneous joy that is the essential idea of Hallel.
The other thread that runs through the end of Perek 3 and into the beginning of Perek 4 is the subordination of the Mitzvah of Lulav to the strictures of Shabbat. Mishna 13 sets forth the elaborate procedure for circumventing the carrying of the Lulav through the streets on Shabbat, and Mishna 15 is entirely about clarifying that returning the Lulav (and other species) to the water whence they had been stored is NOT a violation of the prohibition of watering / growing plants on Shabbat. (The decision to altogether remove the Mitzvah of Lulav from the Shabbat of Sukkot is a post-Mishnaic decision, first recorded in the Gemara.)
This hierarchy of holiness in which Shabbat sits at the apex, is consistent with the Biblical evidence that suggests that even the building of the Mishkan needed to be suspended on Shabbat (see the beginning of Parashat Vayakhel), and that all the Festivals remain subject to the laws of Shabbat when they happen to fall out on Shabbat (see beginning of Vayikra, Chapter 23). This hierarchy is reflective of the idea that our primary and essential experience of time is the 7 day cycle in which God - and we - create for six days, and then stop and reflect on the 7th. This repetitive and uninterrupted cycle is our medium for holy living.
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